Committee amends renter credit-reporting bill, then holds it after tie vote

Senator Pitcher presented S.B.187, which was revised into a pilot program requiring voluntary rent-payment reporting for tenants in certain housing authority units to help renters build credit. The sponsor described a shift from a broader mandate to a limited pilot at the Salt Lake City Housing Authority and invited Dan Nackerman, who identified himself as executive director of the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City, to explain the proposal.

Nackerman said the authority manages roughly 1,500 units and routinely houses about 11,000 people across programs; he explained the agency would voluntarily enroll between 500 and 800 households in an initial 18-month pilot and would cover reporting costs. "This is completely a voluntary program," he said, adding the authority pays private landlords about $40,000,000 a year and is prepared to pilot the reporting among the units it owns.

Industry and landlord groups expressed cautious support but sought a clearer scope. Justin Allen of the Rental Housing Association asked the committee to clarify the sub so the pilot applied only to housing-authority–owned properties. The committee adopted a verbal amendment to add the wording "for a rental unit that is owned by the housing authority" at the end of line 41; the amendment passed unanimously.

When the committee took a procedural vote to pass the first substitute as amended, the tally was a tie (2–2). The chair declared the bill held for now so further action could be considered later; no favorable recommendation was recorded that day.